Online gambling and betting businesses in Spain are on track to becoming a billion-dollar industry, according to forecasts.

An AFP report quoted consultancy firm Ficom Leisure, which said that Spain is now “on the radar of the international market” as it predicts the market’s annual online gambling and betting revenue to hit €1 billion (US$1.22 billion) to €1.5 billion ($1.84 billion) in the next three to five years.

Ficom anchored its analysis on Spain’s 2017 online figures, with sports and casino gross gaming revenues jumping to €560 million ($687 million). Ficom senior partner Christian Tirabassi told the news outlet that, unlike other European markets, Spain still has plenty of room for growth.

Sports betting and gaming company Optima Chief Executive Jacob Lopez Curciel agreed with Tirabassi, saying that Spain remains unsaturated compared to other countries.

State-run Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corporation (PAGCOR) has approved the construction of a $200-million integrated gaming resort in Mimosa, a leisure estate in Clark, located in the northern province of Pampanga.

In a disclosure to the Philippine Stock Exchange on Thursday, Philippine property developer Filinvest Development Corporation (FDC) announced that it secured a provisional license to develop a casino resort near the Clark International Airport through its subsidiary Mimosa Cityscapes.

FDC President and CEO L. Josephine Yap thanked PAGCOR for approving the property developer’s proposal to construct an integrated resort located north of Manila, which she believes will help lure more foreign tourists to visit the country. The casino project will be called “The Filinvest Mimosa + Leisure City,” according to FDC.

“Now that we have secured the provisional license, we foresee further upsurge in tourist arrivals upon completion of the various project components. Its enviable location close to Clark International Airport makes it accessible to both domestic and international tourists,” Yap said in a statement.

Bulgaria has become a piece of heaven on earth for many gambling operators, thanks to huge tax cuts and vibrant gambling activities.

Novite.com reported that Bulgaria-based gambling operators raked in some BGN3 billion ($1.9 billion) revenue in 2017, which is now more than double than the gambling revenue they registered a decade ago.

What makes Bulgaria a gambling paradise is the huge tax benefits that many operators enjoy, according to the Center of the Study of Democracy (CSD), citing the data from Moody’s Amadeus. The group pointed out that licensed gambling operators in Bulgaria paid taxes worth BGN177 million ($111.02 million) in 2016 and BGN144 million ($90.32 million) during the first nine months of 2017.

“If the tobacco product market is estimated at BGN 3.5 billion in 2017, then the excise duties paid and the VAT are about 3 billion levs. With huge gambling profits, the tax paid for 2016 is BGN 177 million,” CSD analyst Tihomir Bezlov said, according to the news outlet.

After spending millions of dollars to win just $27 in its feud with card manufacturer Gemaco, the Borgata casino in Atlantic City received a little bit of good news. Clinton Portis, a former NFL running back, has finally agreed to pay off most of the money from a gambling debt that he ran up at the casino in 2011, according to a CardPlayer report. It’s a small victory, but a victory nonetheless.

In 2011, Portis was playing poker at the casino when he applied for gambling credit. He secured the debt with personal checks that bounced higher than a football off Marquette King’s foot. The Borgata had given the two-time Pro Bowler a total of $200,000 and, after learning that the checks had bounced, sued the player in 2016.

Portis, who played for both the Denver Broncos and the Washington Redskins, will make good on his debt by making monthly payments from now to August 2021 that amount to 10% of “all gross income in excess of $30,000” that he earns during that period, court documents showed. Rough mental calculations indicate that the casino still might not recuperate all of the money lost. Perhaps it can give him a job to help increase his earnings.

Portis filed for bankruptcy in the second half of 2015, despite having earned over $43 million in his nine years in the NFL. He blamed other people for mismanaging his money and for taking advantage of him, and also admitted to thoughts of revenge in the past. In an interview with Sports Illustrated last year, he said that he had considered killing those that had done him wrong financially.

Easter is obviously not a major Chinese holiday but, rather, a western one. Despite Chinese tourists accounting for the majority of tourism to Macau, Easter weekend has historically been a popular time for tourists to descend on the gambling enclave. 2018 would prove to be the exception to the rule.

The four-day holiday period that runs from Good Friday to Easter Monday saw a 4.7% decrease in tourism in Macau compared to the same period last year, GGRAsia reported, quoting data from Public Security Police. Good Friday, Easter Saturday and Easter Monday are considered public holidays in both Macau and its neighbor, Hong Kong. In total, Macau welcomed almost 403,000 tourists during the long weekend. Of those, 74% were Chinese tourists.

Between March 30 and April 2, border checkpoints logged a total of 1.05 million inbound and outbound movements. The busiest checkpoint was at the Border Gate on the north end of the Macau Peninsula with 753,461 entries and 778,738 exits. The border checkpoint at Outer Harbour received the second highest amount of traffic.

While the Chinese led the tourism rush on the city, they were accompanied by individuals from many other countries. South Korea, Indonesia, Japan and the Philippines were all represented over the weekend. No information regarding percentages of those segments was provided.

Online gambling company Lottoland has finally begun singing its swan song, in an attempt to pull at the heartstrings of newsagents before it’s evicted from Australia.

On Thursday, Lottoland has published a full-page newspaper advertisement appealing to newsagents to come to the table and discuss a win-win solution for both parties in the wake of the Australian government’s decision to ban online betting on lotteries and keno.

The ad comes as a letter addressed to newsagents penned by no less than Lottoland CEO Luke Brill, who offered them 20 percent of the profits generated from every bet they refer to the online gambling firm. Newsagents may earn thousands of additional dollars from the proposal, according Brill.

At the same time, Brill said newsagents that took part in the program would have an opportunity to benefit financially from Lottoland bets on overseas lotteries.